Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are increasingly used to treat a variety of cancer types. Patients with preexisting autoimmune diseases may be vulnerable to underlying disease flare as well as ...immune-related adverse events from ICIs. There has also been concern that immunosuppression needed to control the autoimmune disease may blunt ICI efficacy. Much of the literature is focused on diverse preexisting autoimmune diseases, which may limit conclusions to specific diseases. There is a growing literature of specific diseases, such as preexisting rheumatoid arthritis, investigating outcomes after ICI.
There is an emerging understanding that an individual's risk for future rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can be determined using a combination of factors while they are still in a state where ...clinically-apparent inflammatory arthritis (IA) is not yet present. Indeed, this concept has underpinned several completed and ongoing prevention trials in RA. Importantly, risk factors can be divided into modifiable (e.g. smoking, exercise, dental care and diet) and non-modifiable factors (e.g. genetics, sex, age). In addition, there are now several biomarkers including autoantibodies, inflammatory markers and imaging techniques that are highly predictive of future clinically-apparent IA/RA. Although none of the prevention studies have yet provided major breakthroughs, several of them have provided valuable insights that can help to improve the design of future clinical trials and enable RA prevention. In aggregate, these findings suggest that the most accurate disease prediction models will require the combination of demographic and clinical information, biomarkers and potentially medical imaging data to identify individuals for intervention. This review summarizes some of the key aspects around precision medicine in RA with special focus on disease prediction and prevention.
•Biomarkers combined with artificial intelligence hold promise to identify patients at the trajectory to develop rheumatoid arthritis (RA).•Several clinical trials for the prevention of RA have recently been completed or are ongoing and some have already provided insights into RA prevention.•Successful RA prevention will likely require accurate prediction models, clear communication and education of at-risk individuals as well as a tailored risk-level based prevention approach.•Prevention approaches might include incentives/penalties for risk management (life-style choices) and risk-based intervention selection.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
To investigate differences in manifestations and outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection between those with and without rheumatic disease.
We conducted a comparative cohort study of ...patients with rheumatic disease and COVID-19 (confirmed by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 PCR), compared in a 1:2 ratio with matched comparators on age, sex and date of COVID-19 diagnosis, between 1 March and 8 April 2020, at Partners HealthCare System in the greater Boston, Massachusetts area. We examined differences in demographics, clinical features and outcomes of COVID-19 infection. The main outcomes were hospitalisation, intensive care admission, mechanical ventilation and mortality.
We identified 52 rheumatic disease patients with COVID-19 (mean age, 63 years; 69% female) and matched these to 104 non-rheumatic disease comparators. The majority (39, 75%) of patients with rheumatic disease were on immunosuppressive medications. Patients with and without rheumatic disease had similar symptoms and laboratory findings. A similar proportion of patients with and without rheumatic disease were hospitalised (23 (44%) vs 42 (40%)), p=0.50) but those with rheumatic disease required intensive care admission and mechanical ventilation more often (11 (48%) vs 7 (18%), multivariable OR 3.11 (95% CI 1.07 to 9.05)). Mortality was similar between the two groups (3 (6%) vs 4 (4%), p=0.69).
Patients with rheumatic disease and COVID-19 infection were more likely to require mechanical ventilation but had similar clinical features and hospitalisation rates as those without rheumatic disease. These findings have important implications for patients with rheumatic disease but require further validation.
Objective
To evaluate rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease activity and risk of RA‐associated interstitial lung disease (RA‐ILD).
Methods
We investigated disease activity and risk of RA‐ILD using the ...Brigham RA Sequential Study (BRASS, 2003–2016). All patients were diagnosed as having RA according to accepted criteria. Disease Activity Scores in 28 joints (DAS28) and covariate data were measured prospectively at annual study visits. Diagnosis of RA‐ILD was determined by review of images from clinically indicated chest computed tomography scans. We analyzed patients without RA‐ILD at baseline. We used Cox regression to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for RA‐ILD, using annually updated DAS28 data, with adjustment for known RA‐ILD risk factors (age, sex, smoking status, RA duration, and serologic status). We performed alternative analyses that did not censor at the time of missing DAS28 data and included adjustment for use of methotrexate, use of glucocorticoids, presence of bone erosions, and presence of rheumatoid nodules.
Results
Among 1,419 participants, the mean ± SD age was 55.8 ± 14.2 years, and 68.6% were seropositive for either cyclic citrullinated peptide or rheumatoid factor. We identified 85 incident cases of RA‐ILD during a mean ± SD follow‐up duration of 8.9 ± 4.2 years per patient. The moderate/high disease activity group had a multivariable HR of 2.22 (95% CI 1.28–3.82) for RA‐ILD compared to the remission/low disease activity group. Risk of RA‐ILD increased across disease activity categories: multivariable HR 1.00 (reference) for remission, 1.41 (95% CI 0.61–3.28) for low disease activity, 2.08 (95% CI 1.06–4.05) for moderate disease activity, and 3.48 (95% CI 1.64–7.38) for high disease activity (P for trend = 0.001). For each unit increase in the DAS28, the risk of RA‐ILD increased by 35% (95% CI 14–60%). Results were similar in analyses that included follow‐up for missing DAS28 data and with adjustment for use of methotrexate, use of glucocorticoids, presence of bone erosions, or presence of rheumatoid nodules.
Conclusion
Active articular RA was associated with an increased risk of developing RA‐ILD. These results suggest that decreasing systemic inflammation may alter the natural history of RA‐ILD development.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK